


the home that i've wanted to make

by quantumoddity



Series: Widomauk Modern AU [8]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Fluff, Just some good old fashioned gay love you guys, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 11:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15862617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quantumoddity/pseuds/quantumoddity
Summary: Caleb and Mollymauk have been falling deeper and deeper in love ever since the strange day they bumped into each other in the Nestled Nook. And now, back where they first met, Caleb has a question





	the home that i've wanted to make

**Author's Note:**

> This follows on directly from the other fic I wrote in this AU, my heart is hitting the ground so maybe read that one first?

_ I want to spend the rest of my life with you… _

“I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” 

Caleb opened his eyes, startled. The exact words that his own mind had just whispered, spoken aloud, but not by him. He turned in the warm, slightly clinging embrace of the blankets to face Mollymauk who was lying on his stomach just an inch away from him even though the bed had space for more, his eyes half closed and glowing warmly, his cheeks flushed and hair sticking to his damp forehead in the way Caleb imagined his own must be. 

“You do?” he murmured quietly, his voice rasping, “You’re not just saying that because I literally just finished eating you out?”

Molly gave a bark of laughter, reaching over and finding Caleb’s hand underneath the soft blankets ensnaring them both, winding his slim fingers through his boyfriend’s rough, calloused ones. 

“I’d be lying if I said that didn’t have  _ something  _ to do with it,” he chuckled, voice lower than usual, rusty and sultry in that way it got after they’d had sex, the way that made Caleb’s heart beat faster when he heard it, “But no, I do mean it. If we could spend the rest of our lives like this, forever and ever? I’d be very okay with that.” 

He winked at Caleb, eyes glowing a warm kind of ember red in the darkness that was getting heavier as the seconds went by, as the sun disappeared beneath the city skyline outside the window. When they’d burst into their bedroom, kissing frantically and pulling at each other’s clothes, remembering to flick the light on had not been either of their priorities. 

“Forever and ever…” Caleb murmured, squeezing Molly’s hand gently. He let himself imagine that for a moment, coming home to Mollymauk at the end of every day, knowing for certain that he’d be waiting for him, lounging over the sofa or in the kitchen, singing as he worked. Molly sleeping beside him every single night with his gentle snores and habit of muttering nonsense in his sleep and kicking Caleb lightly in the shins when he’d get too warm. Molly’s shampoos and vast array of make up and products crowding on the shelf with his own, more modest collection (Molly had coaxed him into wearing eyeliner just last week, to his absolute delight); Molly’s effortlessly fashionable clothes hung alongside his six copies of the same dark green and mustard flannel. Molly’s books slid in alongside his own, messing up his painstakingly organised library that even now spilled out of three different sets of shelves onto their coffee table and kitchen counter and bedroom floor. 

Molly’s life, irrevocably tangled and threaded through his own. Forever. 

Of course, ever since they’d moved in together, only a few months ago now, Caleb had been quietly getting a taste of that life, settling into it and trying it out the way one wore in a new pair of shoes. Change didn’t come naturally to Caleb, he reacted to it the same way he reacted to pollen in the summer. Mollymauk seemed to understand and appreciate this, their moving in together had been gradual, delicate. A shared key here, shared grocery lists there, moving a few books and clothes back and forth, Frumpkin starting to appear at Molly’s window, scratching and meowing for food (much to Molly’s frustration, he wasn’t a cat guy). So, when they did eventually sign a lease together, when Yasha announced she and Nott and Beau were getting a place of their own, claiming it was because she was sick of being woken up at night by the sound of Molly’s headboard slamming rhythmically into the wall, which Molly pointed out indignantly had been going on long before Caleb turned up and she never complained before (she had), it was less a jump into the unknown for Caleb and more a gradual slide down into it, shuffling on his butt like a kid going down stairs. 

And it had been good. It had been so, so good.

Caleb turned onto his back, staring up at the ceiling where Jester had fixed up a galaxy of glow in the dark stickers shaped like stars, her contribution to their moving day. Still holding on to Molly’s hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed each of his knuckles in turn, drawing a rumbly laugh from the tiefling, now half asleep and half sunk into the pillows. Caleb listened to his slow, rhythmic breathing, felt his tail curl loosely around his thigh as if to make sure that he was still there in bed with him even while his eyes were closed. Not that there was anywhere in the world Caleb would rather be. 

By the time sleep rose up and pulled him under its waves, as the radioactive green glow of the stars blurred and twisted and faded, Caleb had made up his mind. He was sick of keeping thoughts in his head, of denying not only Mollymauk but himself too.

This needed to be said out loud. 

***

“Hey, Beau, look at this!” 

Mollymauk raised his voice above the clamour of their usual table at the Nestled Nook, tucked away in one corner right by the window with the overstuffed, cracked leather sofa chairs that they liked to lounge on and had all their initials carved into the inside of one of the mismatched legs. Caduceus had not been best pleased with them that day though he hadn’t been able to keep back a wry smile when they’d included a proud ‘C.C.’ on the list. 

Making a powerfully poor decision, Beau looked up from her phone, likely making yet another gym appointment so she could gawk at Yasha from the treadmills while she lifted weights and continue to still not actually ask her out on a concrete date, despite the urgings of her friends. 

As she did, Molly blew into his straw and nailed her right between the eyes with the paper wrapper. 

For the fourth time that afternoon. 

Which, in retrospect, she really should have seen coming. 

Molly was too busy cackling maniacally and trying to avoid the salt shaker that Beau upended over his head in retaliation to hear the bell brightly titter at the arrival of Caleb, Nott in her usual position clinging to his back like a green, skinny koala. In amongst Jester’s laughter, Beau calling him a bitch loudly and Fjord chuckling in his usual, thunder like rumble, he didn’t notice as his boyfriend sidled awkwardly over to the counter, looking very much like a man trying not to be conspicuous and failing. He didn’t see the tape Caleb fished out of one of his many homemade pockets and slide across the worn, wooden surface into Caduceus’ hand with a smile made crooked by nervousness, answered with a calm nod and a grin. 

He did notice as Caleb approached the table, jumping up to kiss him, face alight with excitement, “Babe, I got her! Right in the face, I told you I could!” 

“I didn’t say you couldn’t do it, sweetling,” Caleb pointed out, only blushing a little at being greeted so forcefully in front of their friends, he was getting used to it, “I said you shouldn’t.” 

“Ah, I always get confused between those two,” Molly shrugged happily, kissing him again for good measure, a quick flicker of his lips against Caleb’s before he let him go take his usual seat- the one across from his boyfriend’s so Molly could swing his long legs up into his lap, so Caleb’s fingers could walk along the strong lines of his limbs.  

The friends quickly sank into their usual comfortable chatter, trading it back and forth across the table in perfect rhythm, each one of them feeling a sense of completeness they couldn’t quite explain but could recognise that it had something to do with having every seat at their table filled. 

Though in the middle of it all, Mollymauk found his eyes inescapably drawn across to Caleb, sat hunched over a mug of dark, cinnamon scented tea, answering in soft, short sentences only when someone spoke to him first. None of that was particularly unusual, not for Caleb, but something still made Molly tilt his head curiously. 

“Is everything okay, my love?” he asked, voice low, under the buoy of the rest of the chatter, as he reached over and took his hand, “You’ve got ‘Caleb has a deadline tomorrow’ face but I’m pretty sure you graduated a while back. That happened, right? I think I was there…” 

“I did and you were,” Caleb’s cheeks turned a little pink, like someone caught in the act though Molly couldn’t see for the life of him what that act might be, “I’m fine! Just…just thinking, you know…”

“How was the bookstore?” he tried, if there was any subject that could get Caleb to talk it was what he’d found on his last venture to his most favourite place in the city apart from his and Molly’s bed (though the tiefling did wonder sometimes), the ancient antique book store that looked as if it had been standing longer than civilisation, staying resolutely wonky and askew and stuffed with anything and everything a person could ever want and quite a few oddities that no one in their right mind would ever want. 

“Oh, it was good,” Caleb nodded, eyes still sliding off his face every time he looked up at him, “Got a few things…” 

And then he lapsed into silence again, turning as if focusing on someone else down the far end of the table, though his attention was clearly nowhere near the Nestled Nook. 

 

Molly frowned in puzzlement, eyes sweeping over the rest of the table but no one seemed to be noticing Caleb’s fidgetiness and agitation and general air of suspiciousness. In fact, they all looked as if they were quite deliberately ignoring their end, seemingly incredibly absorbed in Nott’s recounting of how Beau and Yasha had an arm wrestling contest the night before and put a crack in their dining room table, even Caduceus who’d abandoned the counter and slid into his seat to listen. 

“You sure you’re alright?” Molly sighed, turning back to Caleb, resolutely staring down into his mug and not at his boyfriend’s face. 

“Positive. Totally. Completely,” Caleb replied far too quickly, stepping on the end of Molly’s sentence and plastering a wide smile on his face, “Just a normal day, normal Saturday, just hanging out.”

Though frustrated, Molly shrugged and turned back to his drink, though he didn’t retract his hand, fingers staying wound through Caleb’s. He knew his wizard. As much as he didn’t like it, he knew there was no way to get him to cough up whatever was bothering him, not before he was ready. Soon he’d come, holding it shyly in tightly cupped hands, apologetic and morose but not after he’d chewed and agonised over it on his own for a while. There was much Molly would have given to be able to bypass that and spare him from it but, short of the world’s most well intentioned and loving interrogation, nothing could make Caleb budge.

Molly adored his wizard more than anything else in the world but that could still be the case  _ while  _ he exasperated the hell out of him. 

The tiefling let his thoughts wander, briefly wondering if Beau would fall for the same trick with the straw for a fifth time and just how bad she’d beat him with a rolled-up The Fantasy New Yorker if she did.

His feet picked it up long before his brain did, the heel of his boot tapping in time with the music against the floorboards as the sing kicked in, underpinned by the wheeze and crackle of Caduceus’ old speaker system. It crept up his body, taking hold of his fingers next as they drummed against Caleb’s knuckles, then further until his pointed ears flickered and stood vertical with sudden excitement.

Molly beamed, sitting up a little straighter, glancing around as if an old friend had just wandered into the café which, in a way, was true. 

“Caleb!” he squeezed his hand, “They’re playing the song again!” 

The wizard looked up, raising his eyebrows curiously, “The song?” 

Mollymauk rolled his eyes, not surprised or even particularly annoyed that Caleb had forgotten, “It’s the song that was playing the first time we met each other in here! Y’know, after I gave you my number when you were smashed beyond belief and then we found each other here again…” 

“I remember,” Caleb was smiling now, a shy, sweet sort of smile that made those crinkles appear in the corners of his lovely brown eyes. All the anxiousness seemed to have melted off his face and he took a deep breath, pushing a curtain of hair away from his face so his eyes could meet Molly’s, “Believe me, I remember.”

Relief bloomed in Mollymauk’s chest like cool water on a sunburn, seeing his boyfriend smiling like that again. Surely whatever had been gnawing at him couldn’t be all that bad after all? He was on the verge of kissing him, maybe even tugging him towards the bathroom for a quickie no matter what the sign on the door said, when Caleb cleared his throat a little and his hand dipped into the inside of his ratty old coat, the one Molly was always threatening to give to a thrift store or burn but never, ever would. 

“Actually, I did find a book at the shop that I wanted to show you,” he murmured, drawing out something square and slim and bound in worn, red leather with pages the colour of milky coffee and bulging out between the covers, “There’s a passage in it…”

Molly reached out happily, his smile softening. His wizard was always doing this, finding odd phrases or paragraphs in the many books he devoured that made him think of his boyfriend, that said the things he felt for him far better than he ever could. He’d always highlight them or circle them in pencil to show him excitedly the next time their busy schedules pushed them together again. Molly loved every single one, they were like precious gems to him that Caleb had found digging in his seemingly endless mines of words and diagrams and indices and it was a balm to know that Caleb continued to think of him even when they were apart, just like Molly thought of him. 

The title proclaimed it to be a book of early 18 th century poetry and the page was marked out for him with a bus ticket; Molly flipped to it eagerly, not noticing that the table had gone utterly silent around them. 

“Wait…what?” he frowned in confusion once it was laid out before him. There was no grimy fluorescent highlighter or scratchy faded pencil showing him where to look, in fact, the page was heavy with thick, harsh blackness obliterating most of the lines, aside from a few gaps. 

“Read it…” Caleb’s voice was soft, insistent. 

Feeling a little lost but also like he was about to find out what had been bugging his boyfriend all day, Mollymauk ran his eyes along the pen lines, finding where they broke around certain words scattered across the page like storm clouds letting in bursts of fading sunshine, reading them aloud slowly to try and find the meaning. 

“Will…you…marry…me…”                                                                              

Oh. 

Molly’s eyes shot up as the book fell from his limp fingers, to find Caleb on one knee beside the table, his expression a mix of apology, hopefulness, relief, love, joy, terror, one of his own rings held between his fingers, offered up to him. His mother’s ring, in fact, the one he’d been wearing for as long as Molly could remember. 

“So…yeah,” he rasped, tears clearly held back as best he could manage though they were betrayed by his voice, “Will you?” 

For once in his life, Mollymauk Tealeaf was utterly and completely speechless. All he could manage was to nod frantically and yank Caleb up by the lapels of his coat so he could kiss him fiercely, throwing his arms around him, both of them oblivious to the cheers, applause and the banging of fists and mugs on the table from their friends. 

So, technically, Caleb hadn’t actually managed to say it out loud. But it was pretty damn perfect, all the same. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please consider leaving a comment if you liked this fic! And if you really, really liked it, I also have a ko-fi under the same name as my Tumblr, @my-dearesteliza, where I also have lots of head canons for this AU under the tag 'urban fantasy au' and you can request more or send me prompts!


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